"It's Tian Yongkang from the seventh team of our village." said Li Xiaojuan.

Tian Yongkang was their elementary school classmate, from the same village, and they knew each other very well.

However, Tian Yongkang only finished elementary school and then stopped going to school.

Li Yutong couldn't help but fall silent.

Tian Yongkang has been sick since he was a child. One of his legs is deformed, and he needs a crutch to walk. He walks crookedly. He is also very thin and small. When he sees people, he doesn't say hello and hides at home all day long.

"So, what do you think?" she asked.

Li Xiaojuan lowered her head and began to cry: "I don't want to, but my mother is willing and has already received the deposit."

Li Yutong sighed. This happened in her previous life.

If Tian Yongkang had a good heart, it would not be so unacceptable if he had a disability. There was a man in the next village who was missing one leg. He learned the skill of repairing bicycles, built a house, got married, had two children, and lived a stable life.

But Tian Yongkang is a somewhat shady person. He looks at people as if he has a grudge against everyone. When people see him, they want to avoid him as soon as possible.

He himself is of average condition. Most of the people in the village are very poor now, and his parents are just ordinary farmers.

In his previous life, his parents used the money they had saved throughout their life to marry Li Xiaojuan to Tian Yongkang.

Why are you talking about Li Xiaojuan, and not someone else?

In the village, there are also men like Li Genwang who raised four daughters and used them all to exchange for money. As long as the bride price is paid, he can marry one of them home.

But Tian Yongkang's parents chose Li Xiaojuan for him.

Why?

Because Li Xiaojuan is an adopted daughter and her parents died long ago, her current adoptive parents treat her like a farmhand in the old society. She has endless work to do and is often beaten. They married Li Xiaojuan as their daughter-in-law and paid her for the goods. However, she suffered a loss in their family, and Li Xiaojuan, as a daughter-in-law, has no one to support her.

Actually, it’s nothing, it’s human nature.

If one's own conditions are not good, one dare not look for someone with better conditions, for fear of being bullied.

For example, among Li Genwang’s daughters, if one of them is bullied, the other three sisters will rush up and start to fight back wildly. They fight even more fiercely than men.

Tian Yongkang's parents didn't dare to tell him about such a family.

His parents had good intentions, but Tian Yongkang didn't think so at all.

Li Xiaojuan is a healthy, well-built, good-looking woman who is also very hardworking. She takes care of everything at home and outside. But it's strange that Tian Yongkang doesn't even like her!

He despised her because she was an adopted daughter who was not valued by her parents, and thought it would be an insult to him for a woman like her to marry him.

"So what are you going to do?" Li Yutong asked.

Li Xiaojuan forced a smile and said, "I don't know what to do. I'm just thinking, if I don't want to, will the villagers laugh at me for being ungrateful?"

"I am not a biological child. My parents raised me and gave me a family. I have always been grateful to them. If I get married, I can get the dowry so that my elder brother can get married. I am willing to do that. I don't mind that Tian Yongkang is a cripple. As long as he treats me well, that's enough."

Li Xiaojuan is so obedient and so grateful.

Li Yutong couldn't help but sigh and asked tentatively: "So, what's the matter with you coming to see me?"

She still hoped in her heart that Li Xiaojuan wanted to break free from the control of her adoptive parents.

It's not that she is selfish or cold-hearted. It's that the work Li Xiaojuan has done since she was a child is enough to repay the kindness of her adoptive parents who raised her by just adding a scoop of water to a pot and eating leftovers every day.

Moreover, the only way to repay a favor is to exchange yourself for a betrothal gift, right?

"I, I just came to see you." Li Xiaojuan said this, but she couldn't help but avoid looking at Li Yutong.

Because she remembered what Li Yutong told her: if she had any difficulties, she could come to the county town to find her.

But she is in such a difficult situation, what can Li Yutong do?

Her adoptive parents were not good people. Everyone in the village called them dirty, scabby dogs, poor, lazy and difficult to deal with.

She didn't want to cause trouble for Li Yutong.

Li Yutong looked at Li Xiaojuan's face, which was just losing its childishness. She was only eighteen years old, but was about to be pushed into the fire pit by her adoptive parents.

"How much dowry did the Tian family give to your parents?" she couldn't help but ask.

Li Xiaojuan recalled: "32,000."

Thirty-two thousand? It was really a lot. It was the 1990s, and the average salary of public institutions was only two or three hundred yuan.

"How about this, you go to the county town to work, and give your parents the wages you earn, so that they can save them to marry your eldest brother. Forget about the Tian family's marriage."

"If they don't want to, you can tell them that you will never get married and will earn a salary to support them and save money for your two remaining brothers to get married. Then they may not let you marry into the Tian family."

Her adoptive parents are selfish. They raised Li Xiaojuan just to give her as a dowry to their son. If they were given a steady stream of money, they would do the math and think that this is the most cost-effective way to make money.

Li Xiaojuan's eyes lit up: "Will this work?"

"Let's give it a try. If it doesn't work, we'll think about it again." Li Yutong said.

In her previous life, Li Xiaojuan married Tian Yongkang, who tortured her to the point of wanting to die. She even had her pregnancy aborted. It just so happened that her second brother was looking for a wife but was short of a dowry.

It is not known who came up with the idea, or whether the couple came up with it themselves, but they went to the Tian family and caused Li Xiaojuan and Tian Yongkang to divorce.

Li Xiaojuan was grateful to her adoptive mother for saving her from suffering, but then she told her about a middle-aged man who was fifteen years older than her and whose wife had died and who was selling shoes at a stall in the market with his two children.

Li Xiaojuan got married again.

Li Yutong really felt sorry for her, so she thought that any help she could give would be a helping hand. A person's destiny is in her own hands. If she doesn't stand up, no matter how much help others give her, it will be useless.

"Well, okay, I'll go back and discuss it with her parents," said Li Xiaojuan.

Li Yutong watched Li Xiaojuan prepare to leave, with a little fear on her face. After all, Li Xiaojuan was beaten and scolded by her adoptive parents since she was a child, and she was afraid of these two people who were like her gods in her bones. She thought of Li Xiaojuan's uncle.

"Perhaps, you can also go to the next village to find your uncle."

Li Xiaojuan was stunned: "Is this okay?"

"Let's give it a try, and if it works." Li Yutong said, "I heard that your uncle took away the compensation money for your parents. Your uncle inherited your house and land, and he also gave you away. You are getting married now, and you are facing such difficulties. No matter what, he should help you, right?"

Most of the villagers, from all over the village, are relatives, and most of them care about their reputation.

From a legal perspective, Li Xiaojuan has no relationship with her uncle's family anymore, but in terms of blood relationship, everyone in the village knows that he is Li Xiaojuan's uncle, and they all know that he took Li Xiaojuan's inheritance. Therefore, he doesn't care about Li Xiaojuan's life or death, and he has been criticized for more than ten years.

Now, Li Xiaojuan is in trouble and comes to me.

If he doesn't say a word and lend a hand, even though he won't get his inheritance back and the police won't put him in jail, the villagers will morally disown him as a person: he has low moral character and is morally corrupt and they can't associate with him.

His children have grown up now, so he has to consider their reputation before discussing their marriage.